Children generally do not like to take medicine, vitamins, minerals or dietary supplements. Most children dislike medicine because of its flavor. This problem becomes particularly acute when the medicine, vitamin, mineral or dietary supplement must be taken on a daily basis.
In an attempt to make medicine, vitamins, minerals, dietary supplements, and the like, more palatable to children, a number of techniques have been employed. Many pediatric medicines are formulated with large amounts of sweeteners and flavorants to mask the taste of the active ingredients. For example, common children's multivitamin pills include sweeteners and flavorants together with vitamins and minerals. U.S. Pat. No. 2,887,437 relates to a palatable vitamin tablet containing an amino acid. The tablet is designed to be swallowed whole, chewed without objectionable taste, dissolved in the mouth, or dissolved in liquids. It contains a plurality of vitamins, a nutritionally essential amino acid, a flavoring agent, and a hydrophilic starch as a disintegration agent. Flavored disintegrable pills have, however, been generally ineffective in overcoming children's reluctance to taking medicines and particularly vitamins which generally require daily administration. While these pills are less objectionable than other dosage forms, the flavor is often overpowered by the taste of the medicine.
Another approach to the administration of medicines, vitamins, minerals, and the like to person s in general is the use of effervescent tablets. Effervescence can be defined as the evolution of bubbles of gas in a liquid. As set forth in chapter 6 of Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms: Tablets Volume I, 2nd Edition, A. Lieberman, ed. 1989, Marcel Dekker, Inc. (the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference), effervescent mixtures have been known and used medicinally for many years. As discussed in this text, and as commonly employed in the medical and pharmaceutical communities, an effervescent tablet is dissolved in water to provide a carbonated or sparking liquid drink. In such a drink the effervescence helps to mask the taste of medicaments. As briefly mentioned in Saleh, An Approach to the Direct Compression of Effervescence Tablets: Chemical Properties of the Ingredients, Lab. Pharmacotech, Fac. Pharmf-67048 Strasborg Cedex. from the Department of Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiout (Egypt), and for the reasons discussed above, effervescent tablets occupy an important position as dosage forms not only for adults, but also for children. However, the use of effervescent tablets to prepare a beverage including medicaments, is not always convenient.
In a departure from the traditional use of effervescence, U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,368 described a chewing gum containing a medicament and a taste-masker. The taste-masker is a generator of carbon dioxide and in an optional embodiment a taste bud desensitizing compound. This type of direct oral dosage form has certain advantages, however, the disadvantages inherent in a gum based delivery system present problems. Gums are difficult to prepare. Because of braces or other dental work, many children are not permitted to chew gum. Furthermore, if the flavor and/pr the effervescent "taste masker" react and/or fade prior to the full release of medicament, the child will be left with a gum having an objectionable taste. Finally, gums leave residues which must be properly disposed of.
Thus there remains a need for a convenient and effective dosage form for intended ingredients which may be consumed by all children, including those who can't chew a gum or swallow a pill and will be readily accepted thereby.